Hillary and Norgay Were the First to Climb Mt. Everest By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated March 29, 2016. After years of dreaming about it and seven weeks of climbing, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest , the highest mountain in the world, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953. They were the first people to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest. Earlier Attempts to Climb Mt. Everest Mount Everest had long been considered unclimbable by some and the ultimate climbing challenge by others. Soaring in height to 29,035 feet (8,850 m), the famous mountain is located in the Himalayas, along the border of Nepal and Tibet, China. Before Hillary and Tenzing successfully reached the summit, two other expeditions got close. Most famous of these was the 1924 climb of George Leigh Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine. They climbed Mount Everest at a time when the aid of compressed air was still new and controversial.

The pair of climbers was last seen still going strong at the Second Step (about 28,140 - 28,300 ft). continue reading below our video Profile of Tenzing Norgay Many people still wonder if Mallory and Irvine might have been the first to make it to the top of Mount Everest. However, since the two men did not make it back down the mountain alive, perhaps we'll never know for sure. The Dangers of Climbing the Highest Mountain in the World Mallory and Irvine certainly were not the last to die upon the mountain. Climbing Mount Everest is extremely dangerous. Besides the freezing weather (which puts climbers at risk for extreme frostbite) and the obvious potential for long falls from cliffs and into deep crevasses, climbers of Mount Everest suffer from the effects of the extreme high altitude, often called "mountain sickness." The high altitude prevents the human body from getting enough oxygen to the brain, causing hypoxia. Any climber who climbs above 8,000 feet could get mountain sickness and the higher they climb, the more severe the symptoms may become.

Most climbers of Mount Everest at least suffer from headaches, cloudiness of thought, lack of sleep, loss of appetite, and fatigue. And some, if not acclimated correctly, could show the more acute signs of altitude sickness, which includes dementia, trouble walking, lack of physical coordination, delusions, and coma. To prevent the acute symptoms of altitude sickness, climbers of Mount Everest spend a lot of their time slowly acclimating their bodies to the increasingly high altitudes. This is why it can take climbers many weeks to climb Mt. Everest. Food and Supplies In addition to humans, not many creatures or plants can live in high altitudes either. For this reason, food sources for climbers of Mt. Everest are relatively nonexistent. So, in preparation for their climb, climbers and their teams must plan, purchase, and then carry all of their food and supplies with them up the mountain. Most teams hire Sherpas to help carry their supplies up the mountain. (The Sherpa are a previously nomadic people who live near Mt.

Everest and who have the unusual ability of being able to quickly physically adapt to higher altitudes.) Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Go Up the Mountain Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were part of the British Everest Expedition, 1953, led by Colonel John Hunt. Hunt had selected a team of people who were experienced climbers from all around the British Empire . Among the eleven chosen climbers, Edmund Hillary was selected as a climber from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, though born a Sherpa, was recruited from his home in India. Also along for the trip was a filmmaker to document their progress and a writer for The Times, both were there in the hopes of documenting a successful climb to the summit. Very importantly, a physiologist rounded out the team. After months of planning and organizing, the expedition began to climb. On their way up, the team established nine camps, some of which are still used by climbers today. Out of all the climbers on the expedition, only four would get a chance to make an attempt to reach the summit. Hunt, the team leader, selected two teams of climbers.

The first team consisted of Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans and the second team consisted of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The first team left on May 26, 1953 to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Although the two men made it up to about 300 feet shy of the summit, the highest any human had yet reached, they were forced to turn back after bad weather set in as well as a fall and problems with their oxygen tanks. Reaching the Top of Mount Everest At 4 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay awoke in camp nine and readied themselves for their climb. Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen and thus spent two hours defrosting them. The two men left camp at 6:30 a.m. During their climb, they came upon one particularly difficult rock face, but Hillary found a way to climb it. (The rock face is now called "Hillary's Step.) At 11:30 a.m., Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Hillary reached out to shake Tenzing's hand, but Tenzing gave him a hug in return. The two men enjoyed only 15 minutes at the top of the world because of their low air supply. They spent their time taking photographs, taking in the view, placing a food offering (Tenzing), and looking for any sign that the missing climbers from 1924 had been there before them (they didn't find any). When their 15 minutes were up, Hillary and Tenzing began making their way back down the mountain. It is reported that when Hillary saw his friend and co-New Zealand climber George Lowe (also part of the expedition), Hillary said, "Well, George, we've knocked the bastard off!" News of the successful climb quickly made it around the world. Both Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became heroes.

BBC ON THIS DAY | 29 | 1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest About This Site | Text Only 1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest The New Zealander Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, have become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border. They reached the top of the world at 1130 local time after a gruelling climb up the southern face. A symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit Edmund Hillary The two men hugged each other with relief and joy but only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes because they were low on oxygen. Mr Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing waving flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India. Sherpa Tenzing buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods. They looked for signs of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine who had disappeared in 1924 in a similar attempt to conquer Everest, but found nothing.

Then they began the slow and tortuous descent to rejoin their team leader Colonel John Hunt further down the mountain at Camp VI. When he saw the two men looking so exhausted Col Hunt assumed they had failed to reach the summit and started planning another attempt. But then the two climbers pointed to the mountain and signalled they had reached the top, and there were celebrations all round. Careful planning Col Hunt attributed the successful climb to advice from other mountaineers who had attempted the feat over the years, careful planning, excellent open-circuit oxygen equipment and good weather. Mr Hillary described the peak, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 m) above sea level, as "a symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit". He was one of the members of the expedition led by Eric Shipton in 1951 that discovered the southern route to the top of the mountain. A year later, Tenzing reached the record height of 28,215 feet (8,599 m) during a Swiss expedition led by Raymond Lambert.

Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the surveyor-general of India who was the first to produce detailed maps of the Indian subcontintent including the Himalayas. The First to the Top of Mount Everest - ABC News ABC News The First to the Top of Mount Everest May 30, 2013 By KATE BUBACZ Sixty years ago, on May 29, 1953, a New Zealand beekeeper and a Nepali sherpa reached the peak of Mount Everest in Nepal. They were the first climbers known to have made it to the summit of the 29,000-foot peak. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made history that day, but they had a team of experienced climbers to support them. Here are some photos of this historic trek. Getty Images View of the snow-capped peaks of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, Nepal, circa 1919. Getty Images Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay, drinking a cup of tea in the middle of the mountains just after they'd reached the summit of Mount Everest, June 20, 1953.

Getty Images Edmund Hillary's route up the mountain during his first expedition to Mount Everest. He was the first to conquer its heights in 1953. Getty Images Members of the British Expedition to Mount Everest, left to right, W. Noyce, M. Westmacott, T.D. Bourdillon, Major Wylie and R.B .Evans, and front row, G.C. Band, Col. John Hunt and A. Gregory in Snowdonia, Wales, on Jan, 19, 1953, testing their equipment before departing to Nepal, to join with their colleagues, Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay. Getty Images New Zealand-born mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary sits at base camp, preparing for his successful attempt to be the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, Nepal, May 1953. Getty Images Mike Westnacott, left, wears oxygen cylinders as a Mr. Rawlinson helps him fix the equipment that they are testing on Tryfan in Snowdonia, Wales, on Jan. 19, 1953, before traveling to Nepal to climb Mount Everest as a part of Sir Edmund Hillary's mountaineering team.

Getty Images Some of the equipment used on Edmund Hillary's Mount Everest expedition, 1953. Getty Images Sherpas weighing baggage before it is divvied up to be carried, at the base of Mount Everest on March 17, 1953, before the start of the Hillary expedition up to the summit. Getty Images Porters on the way to base camp on the Khumba glacier move up the "trough" between large ice pinnacles, near Mount Everest, 1953. Mike Westmacott led teams of sherpas up the mountain ahead of the climbing teams to establish supply lines. Getty Images The New Zealand climber Sir Edmund Hillary crossing the Barun glacier in the Himalayas at an altitude of 5,600 meters on June 16, 1953, after reaching the summit on May 29, 2013. Getty Images Sherpa Tenzing Norgay holds an ice ax at the summit of Mount Everest, Nepal, on May 29, 1953. AP Photo Edmund Hilary, left, and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, right, with expedition leader Col.

John Hunt, center, in Katmandu, Nepal, on May 26, 1953, after descending from the peak of Mount Everest. Getty Images The June 2, 1953, front page of the News Chronicle dedicated to the first successful climb up Mount Everest when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing reached the summit on May 29, 1953. The successful climb came just days before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and was announced to the citizens of London by newspaper boys hawking tabloids. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay - 1953 Everest Article Everest 1953: First Footsteps - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay National Geographic revisits the 1953 British summit to Everest when the first people stood atop the world's highest mountain. View Images Edmund Hillary (left) and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the 29,035-foot summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, becoming the first people to stand atop the world's highest mountain.

Photograph by AP Excerpted From "50 Years on Everest," by Contributing Editor David Roberts, National Geographic Adventure, April 2003 By today's standards, the 1953 British expedition, under the military-style leadership of Sir John Hunt, was massive in the extreme, but in an oddly bottom-heavy way: 350 porters, 20 Sherpas, and tons of supplies to support a vanguard of only ten climbers. "Our climbers were all chosen as potential summiters," recalls George Band, 73, who was one of the party. Fifty years later, Band's memory of the campaign remains undimmed. "The basic plan was for two summit attempts, each by a pair of climbers, with a possible third assault if necessary. On such expeditions the leader tends to designate the summit pairs quite late during the expedition, when he sees how everybody is performing." Anxiety over who is chosen for the summit team would be a hallmark of major Everest expeditions for decades to come. But never again would the stakes be quite so high. By the spring of 1953, the ascent of the world's highest mountain was beginning to seem inevitable.

First attempted in 1921 by the British, Everest had repulsed at least ten major expeditions and two lunatic solo attempts. With the 1950 discovery of a southern approach to the mountain in newly opened Nepal, and the first ascent of the treacherous Khumbu Icefall the following year, what would come to be known by the 1990s as the "yellow brick road" to the summit had been identified. At first it seemed the Swiss would claim the prize. In 1952 a strong Swiss team that included legendary alpinist Raymond Lambert had pioneered the route up the steep Lhotse Face and reached the South Col. From that high, broad saddle, Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay then pushed all the way to 28,210 feet (8,598 meters) on the Southeast Ridge before turning back—probably as high as anyone had ever stood on Earth. Now the British were determined to bring every possible advantage to their spring 1953 offensive—including hiring Tenzing, 38, as their lead Sherpa, or sirdar.

Earlier British expeditions, though impressive in their accomplishments, were often charmingly informal in style. Hunt's intricately planned assault, on the other hand, was all business. "You get there fastest with the mostest," observes mountaineering pundit Ken Wilson. "You have a military leader who is totally in tune with that philosophy, and you don't dink around in an amateur sort of clubby way." From the start, the 33-year-old beekeeper Edmund Hillary (not yet Sir Edmund) was a strong contender for one of the summit slots. "It was his fourth Himalayan expedition in just over two years and he was at the peak of fitness," Band says. The heavily glaciated peaks of his native New Zealand had proved a perfect training ground for the Himalaya. Hillary earned respect early in the expedition by leading the team that forced a route through the Khumbu Icefall. "A sleeves-rolled-up, get-things-done man," Wilson calls him. Still, logistical snafus, the failure of a number of stalwarts to acclimatize, and problems with some of the experimental oxygen sets stalled the expedition badly.

The team took a troubling 12 days to retrace the Swiss route on the Lhotse Face (in part, perhaps, because the British were not as experienced on difficult ice). In despair, Hunt began to wonder whether his party would even reach the South Col. The expedition finally gained the col—the vital staging area for a summit push—on May 21. This was late enough to be worrisome, for the monsoon, whose heavy snows would prohibit climbing, could arrive as early as June 1. Because they became the first men to reach the summit of Everest, Hillary and Tenzing would earn a celebrity that has scarcely faded in 50 years. Who today remembers Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans? Yet Hunt's plan called for Bourdillon, a former president of the Oxford Mountaineering Club, and Evans, a brain surgeon, to make the first summit bid. Despite a relatively late start and problems with Evans's oxygen set, Bourdillon and Evans crested the South Summit—at 28,700 feet (8,748 meters), only 330 feet (101 meters) short of the top—by 1 p.m. on May 26.

But Evans was exhausted, and both men knew they would run out of oxygen if they went on. They agreed to turn back. Says Michael Westmacott, Bourdillon's closest friend on the 1953 team: "It was a decision Tom always regretted." So it was that three days later Hillary and Tenzing set out for the top. Their pairing was hardly an accident. "It had always been Hunt's intention, if feasible, to include a Sherpa in one of the summit teams, as a way of recognizing their invaluable contribution to the success of these expeditions," Band says. "Tenzing had already proved he had summit potential by his performance the previous year with Lambert. In fact, he had been at least 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) higher than any of us!" Indeed, Tenzing (who died in 1986) was the most experienced Everest veteran alive, having participated in six previous attempts on the mountain dating all the way back to 1935.

(To those who criticize the practice of leading paying clients on Everest, Himalayan Experience founder and longtime Everest guide Russell Brice has a barbed, half-joking response: "You know who the first guided client on Everest was? Ed Hillary.") But Hillary, too, had proved his worth, seeming to grow stronger as the expedition progressed. Band notes that Hillary had also realized what a powerful team he and Tenzing would make. "During the expedition, with hindsight, one can see that he made a deliberate effort to develop a good partnership with Tenzing," Band says. "It paid off. Hillary and Tenzing were the logical second party for the summit. But this was not determined at the outset, only during the course of the expedition as it evolved." With an earlier start from a higher camp than Bourdillon and Evans's, Tenzing and Hillary reached the South Summit by 9 a.m. But the difficulties were far from over. After the South Summit, the ridge takes a slight dip before rising abruptly in a rocky spur some 40 feet (12 meters) high just before the true summit.

Scraping at the snow with his ax, Hillary chimneyed between the rock pillar and an adjacent ridge of ice to surmount this daunting obstacle, later to be known as the Hillary Step. The pair reached the highest point on Earth at 11:30 a.m. on May 29. The men shook hands, as Hillary later wrote, "in good Anglo-Saxon fashion," but then Tenzing clasped his partner in his arms and pounded him on the back. The pair spent only 15 minutes on top. "Inevitably my thoughts turned to Mallory and Irvine," Hillary wrote, referring to the two British climbers who had vanished high on Everest's Northeast Ridge in 1924. "With little hope I looked around for some sign that they had reached the summit, but could see nothing." As the two men made their way back down, the first climber they met was teammate George Lowe, also a New Zealander. Hillary's legendary greeting: "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off!" Their fame was spreading even as Hillary and Tenzing left the mountain.

"When we came out toward Kathmandu, there was a very strong political feeling, particularly among the Indian and Nepalese press, who very much wanted to be assured that Tenzing was first," Sir Edmund recalls today. "That would indicate that Nepalese and Indian climbers were at least as good as foreign climbers. We felt quite uncomfortable with this at the time. John Hunt, Tenzing, and I had a little meeting. We agreed not to tell who stepped on the summit first. "To a mountaineer, it's of no great consequence who actually sets foot first. Often the one who puts more into the climb steps back and lets his partner stand on top first." The pair's pact stood until years later, when Tenzing revealed in his autobiography, Tiger of the Snows, that Hillary had in fact preceded him. Neither man anticipated how much, in the wake of their success, the appeal of that patch of snow more than five miles in the sky would grow. "Both Tenzing and I thought that once we'd climbed the mountain, it was unlikely anyone would ever make another attempt," Sir Edmund admits today.

"We couldn't have been more wrong." Comment on This Story Edmund Hillary, First on Everest, Dies at 88 - The New York Times The New York Times Asia Pacific |Edmund Hillary, First on Everest, Dies at 88 Search Correction Appended Photo Sir Edmund Hillary, 83, smiles in front of a giant picture of Mount Everest at the Birendra International Convention Centre in Katmandu May 29, 2003. Credit Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters Sir Edmund Hillary , the lanky New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who with Tenzing Norgay , his Sherpa guide, won worldwide acclaim in 1953 by becoming the first to scale the 29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, died Friday in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 88. His death was announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand. In the annals of great heroic exploits, the conquest of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund and Mr. Norgay ranks with the first trek to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911 and the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight by Charles A.

Lindbergh in 1927. By 1953, nearly a century after British surveyors had established that the Himalayan peak on the Nepal -Tibet border was the highest point on earth, many climbers considered the mountain all but unconquerable. The summit was 5 ½ vertical miles above sea level (up where today’s jets fly): an otherworldly place of yawning crevasses and 100-mile-an-hour winds, of perpetual cold and air so thin that the human brain and lungs do not function properly in it. Numerous Everest expeditions had failed, and dozens of experienced mountaineers, including many Sherpas, the Nepalese people famed as climbers, had been killed — buried in avalanches or lost and frozen in sudden storms that roared over the dizzying escarpments. One who vanished, in 1924, was George Leigh Mallory, known for snapping when asked why climb Everest, “Because it is there!” His body was found in the ice 75 years later, in 1999, about 2,000 feet below the summit. Continue reading the main story Sir Edmund and Mr.

Norgay were part of a Royal Geographical Society-Alpine Club expedition led by Col. Henry Cecil John Hunt — a siege group that included a dozen climbers, 35 Sherpa guides and 350 porters carrying 18 tons of food and equipment. Their route was the treacherous South Col, facing Nepal. Advertisement Continue reading the main story After a series of climbs by coordinated teams to establish ever-higher camps on the icy slopes and perilous rock ledges, Tom Bourdillon and Dr. Charles Evans were the first team to attempt the summit, but gave up at 28,720 feet — 315 feet from the top — beaten back by exhaustion, a storm that shrouded them in ice and oxygen-tank failures. Sir Edmund, then 33, and Mr. Norgay, 39, made the next assault. They first established a bivouac at 27,900 feet on a rock ledge six feet wide and canted at a 30-degree angle. There, holding their tent against a howling gale as the temperatures plunged to 30 degrees below zero, they spent the night. At 6:30 a.m.

on May 29, 1953, cheered by clearing skies, they began the final attack. Carrying enough oxygen for seven hours and counting on picking up two partly filled tanks left by Dr. Evans and Mr. Bourdillon, they moved out. Roped together, cutting toe-holds with their ice axes, first one man leading and then the other, they inched up a steep, knife-edged ridge southeast of the summit. Halfway up, Sir Edmund recalled in “High Adventure” (1955, Oxford University Press), they discovered soft snow under them. “Immediately I realized we were on dangerous ground,” he said. “Suddenly, with a dull breaking noise, an area of crust all around me about six feet in diameter broke off.” He slid backward 20 or 30 feet before regaining a hold. “It was a nasty shock,” he said.

“I could look down 10,000 feet between my legs.” Farther up, they encountered what was later named the Hillary Step — a sheer face of rock and ice 40 feet high that Sir Edmund called “the most formidable obstacle on the ridge.” But they found a vertical crack and managed to climb it by bracing feet against one side and backs against the other. The last few yards to the summit were relatively easy. “As I chipped steps, I wondered how long we could keep it up,” Sir Edmund said. “Then I realized that the ridge, instead of rising ahead, now dropped sharply away. I looked upward to see a narrow ridge running up to a sharp point. A few more whacks of the ice ax and we stood on the summit.” The vast panorama of the Himalayas lay before them: fleecy clouds and the pastel shades of Tibet to the north, and in all directions sweeping ranks of jagged mountains, cloud-filled valleys, great natural amphitheaters of snow and rock, and the glittering Kangshung Glacier 10,000 feet below. There was a modest celebration.

“We shook hands and then, casting Anglo-Saxon formalities aside, we thumped each other on the back until forced to stop from lack of breath,” Sir Edmund remembered. They took photographs and left a crucifix for Colonel Hunt, the expedition leader. Mr. Norgay, a Buddhist, buried biscuits and chocolate as an offering to the gods of Everest. Then they ate a mint cake, strapped on their oxygen tanks and began the climb down. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Four days later, the news was flashed around the world as a coronation gift of sorts to Queen Elizabeth II, who was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 2. “We tuned into the BBC for a description of the queen’s coronation, and to our great excitement heard the announcement that Everest had been climbed,” Sir Edmund recalled in his autobiography, “Nothing Venture, Nothing Win” (1975, Hodder & Stoughton). The queen promptly made Edmund Hillary a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, while Mr. Norgay received the George Medal of Britain and other honors. Worldwide heroes overnight, they were greeted by huge crowds in India and London. A controversy over whether Sir Edmund or Mr.

Norgay had been first to stand on the summit threatened briefly to mar the celebrations, but Colonel Hunt declared, “They reached it together, as a team.” It was not until 1999, in his book “View from the Summit” (Doubleday), that Sir Edmund broke his silence about which of the two men had reached the peak first. He wrote that it was he, not Mr. Norgay. “We drew closer together as Tenzing brought in the slack on the rope,” he wrote. “I continued cutting a line of steps upwards. Next moment I had moved onto a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing but space in every direction.” He added, “Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder.” Photo Credit The New York Times Sir Edmund continued his life of adventure, climbing mountains and once crossing the Antarctic, lecturing and making public appearances, and serving as New Zealand’s high commissioner, or ambassador, to India, Bangladesh and Nepal from 1985 to 1988. Like Sir Edmund, Mr. Norgay, whose name was sometimes rendered Norkay, never again tried to climb Everest. He died in 1986.

In more than five decades since the first successful assault on what climbers call the top of the world, more than 3,000 people, including Sir Edmund’s son, Peter, and Mr. Norgay’s son, Jamling, have reached the summit of Everest, while more than 200 have died in the attempt, 8 of them in a 1996 expedition that was savaged by a blizzard. Today, Everest expeditions are almost commonplace. On a single day in 2003, 118 people were reported to have made it. Some veteran climbers have criticized the “commercialism” and “circus atmosphere” surrounding Everest climbing. Sir Edmund added his voice to the lament in 2003 as crowds gathered for the 50th anniversary celebrations in Katmandu, Nepal. Tough, rawboned, 6 feet 5 inches tall, with a long leathery and wrinkled face, Sir Edmund was an intelligent but unsophisticated man with tigerish confidence on a mountain but little taste for formal social doings.

For many years after the Everest climb, he continued to list his occupation as beekeeper — his father’s pursuit — and he preferred to be known as Ed. Advertisement Continue reading the main story During the Southern Hemisphere summer of 1957-58 a British Commonwealth team that included Sir Edmund crossed the Antarctic on an overland route that traversed the South Pole. The expedition, using tractors, was led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, but Sir Edmund and a party of New Zealanders made the dash over the pole. There was debate afterward about credit, but a book by Sir Edmund and Sir Vivian belittled the differences. In 1960, Sir Edmund led a highly publicized but unsuccessful search for the Abominable Snowman. And in 1985, accompanied by Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, Sir Edmund flew a twin-engine ski plane over the Arctic and landed at the North Pole. He thus became the first to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. Sir Edmund wrote or was a co-author of 13 books, including “No Latitude for Error” (1961, Hodder & Stoughton), about the Antarctic experience.

He also formed a foundation, the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust, which raised millions and built schools, clinics, airfields and other facilities for the Sherpa villages in Nepal. For many years, Sir Edmund was president of New Zealand’s Peace Corps and an important voice in his country’s conservation efforts. Edmund Percival Hillary was born July 20, 1919, in Tuakau, near Auckland, the son of Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Clark Hillary. His father was a commercial beekeeper, and Edmund and a younger brother, Rexford, worked on the family farm. Edmund began climbing as a youth while attending public schools in Auckland. He went to Auckland University and served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II. After the war he took climbing instruction from leading alpinists, began to specialize in ice-climbing techniques, climbed in the Swiss Alps and got to know British mountaineers with Himalayan experience. He began climbing peaks of more than 20,000 feet in Nepal. As his reputation grew, Colonel Hunt chose him as a member of the 1953 expedition that conquered Everest.

Four months after Everest, Sir Edmund married Louise Mary Rose, the daughter of a mountain climber. They had three children, Peter, Sarah and Belinda. In 1975, Lady Louise and Belinda were killed when their small plane crashed on takeoff from Katmandu Airport. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In 1979, Sir Edmund was to have been commentator on an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight over the Antarctic but had to withdraw because of a schedule conflict. His friend and fellow mountaineer Peter Mulgrew took his place. The plane crashed on Mount Erebus, a volcano on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound, and all 257 aboard were killed. Sir Edmund married June Mulgrew, his friend’s widow, in 1989. Besides Lady June, Sir Edmund is survived by his daughter, Sarah, his son, Peter, and six grandchildren. A footnote to the lore of Everest was added in 1999. Using global positioning system equipment, an expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society and others revised the elevation of the summit upward by 7 feet, to 29,035 from 29,028.

Standing atop that pinnacle in 1953 was an experience Sir Hillary would recollect many times in lectures and quiet conversations. “The whole world around us lay spread out like a giant relief map,” he told one interviewer. “I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.” Correction: January 12, 2008 An obituary Friday about Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay became the first to scale Mount Everest, misidentified the route they took to the summit. It is the South Col, not the South Tor. In comparing the feat to one by Charles A. Lindbergh, the obituary misstated Lindbergh’s accomplishment. Though he was the first to make a solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight, in 1927, he was not the first aviator to make the nonstop crossing; John W. Alcock and Arthur W. Brown did so together in 1919, from Newfoundland to Ireland. In addition, the precedents for Sir Edmund’s reaching the South Pole in 1957-58 were referred to incorrectly.

Robert Falcon Scott reached the pole in 1912, and the United States built a base there in 1956; Sir Edmund was not the first to reach the pole since Roald Amundsen in 1911. Tim Johnston contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia. A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B6 of the National edition with the headline: Sir Edmund Hillary, Mountaineer Who Conquered Everest, Dies at 88. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Climbing Mount Everest - Photos - The Big Picture - Boston.com Climbing Mount Everest Sixty years ago today New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent of the world's tallest peak which reaches 29,029 feet. Since then thousands of people have made the attempt, with many perishing. Just last week 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to reach the summit for the third time, although he said that he nearly died on the descent and that this would be his last time.

The 1953 expedition that took Hillary and Norgay to the top ended with a stay of just 15 minutes, with Norgay leaving chocolates in the snow and Hillary leaving a cross that was given to him by Army Colonel John Hunt, the leader of the British expedition. -- Lloyd Young ( 37 photos total ) Tenzing Norgay, left, and Sir Edmund Hillary on their historic ascent of Mount Everest in 1953. (Associated Press) 5 Sir Edmund Hillary, left, and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa smile after summiting the Mount Everest in 1953 in this undated handout photograph. Nepali Sherpa friends of Sir Hillary, who died on January 11, 2008, lit butter lamps and offered special Buddhist prayers in monasteries for the mountaineer, calling him a great philanthropist and friend of Nepal. Hillary, who scaled Mount Everest in 1953 along with Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, spent much of his life afterwards helping Sherpa communities in Nepal, including projects to build hospitals and schools.

(Norgay Archive via Reuters) # 6 Media film the statues of Edmund Hillary, left, and Tenzing Norgay during a function to mark the 60th anniversary of successful ascent of Mount Everest, in Katmandu, Nepal, on May 29, 2013. Hillary and Norgay were the first people to set foot on the peak of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. (Niranjan Shrestha/Associated Press) # 7 Kancha Sherpa, a team member of the 1953 Mount Everest expedition that placed Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the summit of the world's highest mountain, and Amelia Rose Hillary (2nd R), granddaughter of New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary, waves to well-wishers from a horse-drawn carriage during a procession for Everest Summitteers during the Mount Everest Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Kathmandu on May 29, 2013. Nepal marked 60 years since the first ascent of Everest May 29, celebrating the summiteers whose success has bred an industry that many climbers now fear is ruining the world's highest peak.

(Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images) # 9 Buddhist prayer flags flutter in a strong wind blowing towards the snow capped peaks of Mount Everest, center, and Lhotse, right, near Tengboche village on the trail to Mount Everest in Nepal on May 14, 2003. A team of 12 mountaineers from Indian Army, Royal Nepalese Army and Nepalese sherpas scaled Lhotse Tuesday setting a record for the highest number of mountaineers to scale the technically difficult peak in a single day. (Gurinder Osan/Associated Press)) # 10 Drinks, rice and a kind of flour is offered near the end of the Puja ceremony for Team Everest on April 7, 2003, at Everest Base Camp in Nepal. The Puja is a buddhist ceremony to bless the team and its equipment and to seek safe passage up the mountain. Buddhist prayer flags radiate from the center pole. (Erich Schlegel/The Dallas Morning News via Associated Press) # 12 An aerial view the Mount Everest range some 140 km (87 miles) northeast of Kathmandu on Jan.

14, 2011. The government said it aims to double the number of foreign visitors who come to Nepal every year to one million in 2011. (Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images) # 13 Members of the E3 99 Everest Extreme Expedition negotiate a three ladder bridge over the Camp 1 crevasse at 19,500 feet on Mount Everest in Nepal, on May 13, 1999, testing vital sign monitors and gathering additional information on hypoxia and acclimatization. (Associated Press) # 14 Mountaineers pass through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall on their way to Mount Everest near Everest Base camp, Nepal, on May 18, 2003. With the weather providing a safer window for summit attempts starting May 19, many teams, including the joint Indo-Nepalese army, Korean and Japanese have left for attempting to climb the world's highest peak.

(Gurinder Osan/Associated Press) # 16 Climbers from various countries descend Khumbu Icefall on their way back to Base Camo on May 22, 2013 after summiting Mount Everest . May is the most popular month for Everest climbs because of more favorable weather. Earlier this month, an 80-year-old Japanese man Yuichiro Miura became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest and Raha Moharrak became the first woman from Saudi Arabia to scale the peak. (Pasang Geljen Sherpa/Associated Press) # 17 An aerial photograph of Everest Base camp, a large tent city full of climbers at 18,000 ft. May 15, 2003 which sits at the foot of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border. A record 1,000 climbers plan assaults on the summit of Mount Everest to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the first successful assault on the World's tallest mountain.

(Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)) # 21 80-year-old Japanese extreme skier Yuichiro Miura stands atop the summit of Mount Everest as he becomes the oldest person to climb the world's tallest mountain May 23, 2013. Miura, who also conquered the peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05 a.m. local time, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura's Tokyo-based support team. (MIURA DOLPHINS Co., Ltd via Associated Press) # 22 Japanese mountain climber Yuichiro Miura, 80, shows a victory sign upon his arrival at the airport after climbing Mount Everest, in Kathmandu May 26, 2013. Miura, who has had four heart surgeries, reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday becoming the oldest person to conquer the world's highest mountain.

Miura, who first climbed Everest in 2003 and repeated the feat five years later, takes the oldest climber record from Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76 in 2008. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters) # 23 Two people (bottom left) stand next to their tent as they camp at the base of the earth's highest peak, Mount Everest, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the People's Republic of China, on Oct.13, 2011. Tibet is a vast land of harsh, arid, brown plateaus and majestic mountain ranges. Living in the thin air of this high altitude desert are many nomads. Religion is an integral part of life for Tibetans, and most partake in religious pilgrimages of hundreds of kilometers to visit the region's monasteries and sacred sites.

(Barbara Walton/European Pressphoto Agency) # 25 In this image released by mountain guide Adrian Ballinger of Alpenglow Expeditions and taken May 18, 2013, climbers make their way to the summit of Mount Everest, in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Nepal celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Wednesday, May 29, 2013, by honoring climbers who followed in the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. (Adrian Ballinger/Alpenglow Expeditions via Associated Press) # 26 Mount Everest (top), or Sagarmatha, the highest peak in the world with an altitude of 8,848 meters is seen in this aerial view next to the 6,812 meters (22,349 feet) high Mount Ama Dablam (bottom) on April 22, 2007. Climate experts agreed on a U.N.

report on May 4, 2007 that said fighting global warming is affordable and the technology available to slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions and stave off climate chaos, a senior delegate said. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters) # 27 Climbers make their way to the summit of Mount Everest on May 18, 2013, in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Nepal celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. (Adrian Ballinger/Alpenglow Expeditions via Associated Press) # 28 In a May 19, 2009 photograph, unidentified mountaineers descend Mount Everest. A group of top Nepalese climbers are planning a high-risk expedition to clean up Everest, saying decades of mountaineering have taken their toll on the world's highest peak. "Everest is losing her beauty," seven times Everest summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, 30, told AFP. "The top of the mountain is now littered with oxygen bottles, old prayer flags, ropes, and old tents.

At least two dead bodies have been lying there for years now". (AFP/Getty Images) # 29 Tents glow in the twilight as clouds cover Everest Base Camp in Nepal on May 22, 2003. Many teams have rescheduled their summit attempt due to bad weather, even as some managed to reach the summit of Mount Everest from the south side, first climbed this season by the Indian-Nepalese army team early Thursday. (Gurinder Osan/Associated Press) # 30 Climbers navigate the knife-edge ridge just below the Hillary Step on May 18, 2013 during their way to the summit of Mount Everest, in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Sixty years ago Wednesday, Sir Edmund Hillary and climbing partner Tenzing Norgay were the first to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth on May 29, 1953. (Adrian Ballinger/ALPENGLOW EXPEDITIONS, via Associated Press) # 31 Arunima Sinha poses with the Indian flag on Mount Everest.

The twenty-six year old Sinha, from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, who lost her leg after she was thrown from a moving train two years ago, became the first female amputee to climb Everest on May 21. (Arunima Sinha/AFP/Getty Images) # 32 13-year-old Jordan Romero, right, poses for photos with a Sherpa guide on the summit of Mount Everest on May 22, 2010. Jordan became the youngest climber to reach the top of Mount Everest after climbing it from the Chinese side accompanied by a team that included his father, his stepmother and three Sherpa guides. (Team Romero via Associated Press) # 36 Mount Everest seen from above Everest Base camp, Nepal on May 26, 2003. Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary, is scheduled to hold a prayer session and ritual mask dance at the monastery today to commemorate 50 years of his father's and Tenzing Norgay's climb to Mount Everest.

(Gurinder Osan/Associated Press) # 37 Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags are seen on the summit of Mount Everest on May 18, 2013 in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Nepal celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Wednesday, May 29, 2013, by honoring climbers who followed in the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. (ALPENGLOW EXPEDITIONS via Associated Press) # More links and information Mount Everest Expedition 1953 Mount Everest Expedition 1953 Mount Everest Expedition 1953 Along with Edmund Hillary and other climbers, Eric Shipton saw the Western Cwm and the south side of Everest for the first time on the 1951 Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. At last, here was a route to the summit of Everest. However, the British no longer had a monopoly on the mountain, and in 1952 the Nepali authorities gave the Swiss permission to climb Everest.

Raymond Lambert made two attempts in both the spring and the autumn and, with Tenzing Norgay at his side, reached the highest point on the mountain to date. The summit, however, remained elusive. In 1953, under the leadership of John Hunt, the British were given permission to climb Mount Everest. Hunt brilliantly orchestrated the necessary equipment and scientific preparations and, through his belief in teamwork, brought together a band of men who together would attempt this lofty peak. From Kathmandu the team set off for Bhagaon with several tonnes of equipment. After 17 days trekking they reached Thyangboche in Solu Khumbu. On arrival, Hunt sent small teams off to acclimatize and prepare for the ordeal of climbing Everest. Base Camp was established on April 12, 1953 and thereafter the Khumbu Icefall became an important feature of life in climbing Mount Everest. Ever since, the Icefall has been renowned as one of the most treacherous parts on the attempt of Everest. An ever-shifting river of ice, with huge crevasses and frozen blocks of ice and rock, this monster of nature had to be overcome.

Establishing a route through the Icefall took several days. Thereafter it had to be kept open for a constant succession of men and equipment. The team established nine camps from the Khumbu Glacier, through the Icefall, up the Western Cwm and on to the South Col of Everest. For several weeks Sherpas busily moved supplies ever further up the mountain. By May 21, 1953 Wilfred Noyce and Annullu had reached the South Col, a symbolic and crucial objective. The final objective, however, was the summit. On May 26, 1953, the first assault party comprising Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans set off for the south summit, using closed-circuit oxygen equipment. At the south summit they realized that they would not be able to reach the summit owing to lack of time. Wearily, they returned to Camp XIII. On May 28, the second assault party comprising Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made their bid. Together they set off, establishing Camp IX at 27,900 feet (8503 m) before spending a bitterly cold and desolate night trying to sleep.

At 4 a.m., they finally rose and began preparing themselves for the day ahead. Using open-circuit oxygen equipment they departed at 6.30 a.m. Climbing steadily, they reached the south summit at 9 a.m. Onward and upwards into the unknown they persevered. As Hillary stated: “I continued hacking steps along the ridge and then up a few more to the right … to my great delight I realized we were on top of Mount Everest and that the whole world spread out below us”. It was 11.30 a.m. on May 29, 1953. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary had reached the highest point on the earth. The dramatic ice formations of the Icefall were just one of the many obstacles that had to be overcome in climbing Mount Everest, which can be seen behind in the distance. Photo: Edmund Hillary, 1953 Meandering through the Khumbu Icefall, Sherpas carrying heavy loads appear as busy ants intent on reaching Camp II. Photo: George Lowe, 1953

Question: Who was the expedition leader when Edmund Hillary became the first person to climb Mount Everest?
Answer: JOHN HUNT